


Turning Tides

by fictitiousLiterate



Series: TMA Crack [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fake Wedding, First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Beta Read, daisy quickly frees herself from this shit show, i'm extremely mean to peter in this, rated T for swears and make outs near the end, which is to say martin's internal monologue is extremely mean to peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25454305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictitiousLiterate/pseuds/fictitiousLiterate
Summary: Peter Lukas decides the best way to deal with his positive platonic feelings towards Martin is to marry him off to Jon and then never talk to anyone at the Magnus Institute ever again. Martin, Jon, and Daisy have to go along with it.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: TMA Crack [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862338
Comments: 18
Kudos: 142





	Turning Tides

Peter Lukas had a problem. To most people it probably wouldn’t be considered a problem; in fact, a budding friendship is typically considered a good thing, but not to Peter. The problem was that in training his new assistant, Martin Blackwood, in serving the Lonely he had come to feel a disgusting fondness for the young man. So much so that he once considered _actively seeking his company._ It was frankly nauseating. What made it worse is that he had been isolating Martin over the past few months, so even if he chose to just forfeit his bet with Elias and return to the Tundra, Martin and he could very well still be colleagues in the Lonely. The point was he had to get the hell away from Martin Blackwood in such a way that didn’t leave Martin isolated. Fortunately, he had a way to ensure Martin was connected enough to a person that not only would he not be Lonely he would most likely never bother him again. It would piss Elias the hell off as a bonus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Martin Blackwood had a few problems. Firstly he had been so willing to throw himself between Peter Lukas and the rest of the Institute when he was certain he had lost Jon forever. Now Jon was back which meant he needed to redouble his efforts to keep Peter the hell away from the Archivist. The other problem was that no matter how Lonely he claimed to be he still felt the white-hot burning love he had for Jon far too long. Unfortunately, Jonathan Sims had the self-preservation instincts of a piece of bread in a duck pond and had dove headfirst into an evil coffin. After he was inside for three days Martin was sure enough that no one else was going to do anything and decided to try to get Jon back by surrounding the thing with tape recorders and turning them all on. Peter definitely knew he’d done that and would definitely give him an earful about their “important work” the next time he deigned to visit.

That last one he was the least worried about. Peter knew jack shit about The Eye so he could probably just feed him some lie about feeling “compelled” or “not remembering doing it” and Peter would take it as fact. Martin hated lying but Peter was an awful, evil man and if giving him a few fibs meant he stayed away from everyone else then Martin wasn’t losing any sleep over it. He is startled out of his considerations by the awful, evil man in question appearing in his office with that chipper grin that Martin hated.

“Martin!” Peter said with all his usual overly enthused manner before clearing his throat and beginning in a much more serious tone. “Martin, I’d like you to come with me to the Archives.”

“Hello, Peter,” Martin replies as flatly as possible; both in an attempt to keep the contempt from his voice and to seem like he _cares_ about the Archives. “Can I ask why?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough,” Peter says in a tone that he probably thinks isn’t ominous as all hell.

“We had a deal, Peter,” Martin warns, still sitting behind his desk.

“Nothing like that, Martin,” Peter says. “I promise no one in the Archive is getting harmed. Sailor’s Honor.”

“Pretty sure that’s not a thing but sure,” Martin sighs, contempt creeping into his voice as he stands up to follow Peter.

The walk from the office to the Archive is soul crushingly awkward. Martin leads as Peter follows along behind him. He can imagine the stupid grin Peter has on his face as they walk down the four flights of stairs. It would probably be wise to be a bit more afraid, given that Peter Lukas was a horrible eldritch monster and was leading him down into a pit of knowledge on all eldritch monsters, but he was finding it harder and harder to care.

When they reach the bottom of the stairs Peter walks up to the familiar Head Archivist’s door and opens it. That startles one of the occupants of the room into standing up and growling at him. Detective Tonner must have been in the room with Jon, then.

“Ms. Tonner, excellent, you can witness,” Peter says in that grating way of his. “Martin, come here.”

Martin does as he’s asked. He walks into Jon’s office for the first time in six months and looks at the Archivist with a schooled expression as he can manage. Jon looks unsurprisingly terrible. Still better than he did in the hospital but that’s mostly due to how bright red his face was. It didn’t look like rage. Embarrassment maybe? He felt a flash of jealousy. What had Peter caught Jon and Daisy doing?

“Peter, that’s ridiculous,” Jon says seemingly out of the blue.

“I don’t think so, Archivist. You need anchors and I’m sure you all want me out of your hair.”

“Martin, did Peter tell you why he brought you down here?” Jon addresses him directly, acid green eyes boring into him.

“I thought it would be best to only have to say it once,” Peter says before Martin can answer. “After some of my own searching, I have decided that the Lonely doesn’t need another servant _certainly_ not one already marked by the Eye. So, I’m going to marry you and the Archivist before returning to the Tundra. I’ll leave you in charge here in an official capacity, of course. I honestly don’t care what you do with Institute after I’m gone.”

“Sorry, you think marrying us accomplish what exactly?” Martin asks incredulously. If this is what Jon Knew no wonder he was red; Martin could feel his own face heating up.

“A loving marriage is rarely Lonely,” Peter replies confidently. It was a stupid answer. Martin looks over at Jon and upon meeting his gaze decides maybe it’s best to just go with it. If Peter was really going to leave and never return whatever mess this was would be worth it. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.

“Fine,” Martin says flatly.

“Martin I-we should,” Jon stammers.

“Jon, listen, if we do this Peter will be out of our hair and...we can talk about it later, ok?”

“Do you trust him to stay out of your hair?” Daisy asks and it startles Martin. He had forgotten she was there, standing between Jon and Peter as if she could protect him in her frail state.

“Why don’t you Ask me, Archivist?” Peter asks. Jon pulls a sour face before turning the full for of his gaze onto Peter. It wasn’t until then that Martin realized this was the first time Jon’s eyes had left his since he entered the room.

“Peter, _why do you want to marry Martin and I?_ ”

“That’s not what I…” Peter starts, looking genuinely irritated. “I have found myself growing disgustingly fond of Martin. Far more than I should be fond of anyone as a servant of the Lonely. So I have decided to leave for my own sake. However, Martin is still doing excellent on his own path to becoming a servant of the Lonely and if left to his own devices could do so anyway. I was told of his...feelings for you some time ago and I believe my best course of action is to bind you two together. Giving control of the Institute to Martin will also infuriate Elias, which I’m sure you all can agree is a bonus.”

“So you’re leaving….because you want to be friends with Martin?” Daisy asks slowly. Martin as taken to looking at Jon who is mirroring his confusion perfectly.

“Yes, now if you don’t mind I’d like to get this over with as soon as possible so I can leave and never see or think about any of you again,” Peter replies shortly.

Jon stands up from behind his desk and walks around it so he’s standing right next to Martin. The proximity is what finally makes them both look away. Jon is fidgeting with the hem of his cardigan and it makes Martin’s heart flutter despite the numbness of the Lonely buzzing in his chest. Peter stands facing Jon and Martin while keeping Daisy in his periphery.

“Right, ok,” he begins with seemly very little confidence. “Would you two join hands?”

Jon takes Martin’s hands tentatively in his own and Martin feels himself blush more.

“Archivist, do you take Martin to be your husband?”

“I do,” Jon says. He opens his mouth to say more, seems to think better of it, and gives Martin a look that reads _everything else in our lives is so goddamn weird, this might as well happen._

“Martin, do you take the Archivist to be your husband?” Martin realizes at this point that Peter may have no idea what Jon’s name is. He clearly doesn’t know how to perform a wedding, although Martin can’t speak with confidence since he hasn’t been to many weddings. Come to think of it, this is probably exactly how Lukas weddings go.

“I do,” not exactly how he’d imagined his wedding to go when he was little, but he’s not totally sure how much this counted as a real wedding.

“Wonderful, now you may kiss.”

No. No. Absolutely not. His first kiss with Jon was not going to be to playing whatever bizarre game Peter was playing. Jon seemed to see his trepidation and looked kind of sad. He let go of Martin’s hands to cup his face.

“Trust me, Martin,” Jon whispers. If Peter hears him he doesn’t say anything; instead looking on with that stupid grin of his. Martin nods and Jon presses his thumbs over Martin’s lips. He quickly leans up and presses a kiss to his thumbs before letting go of Martin’s face. Peter looked satisfied.

“By the power vested in me by...the Tundra. I now pronounce you...married,” he says while reaching into his pocket and handing Martin an envelope. “That should cover the cost of the rings and any other necessary paperwork. Please never try to contact me again.”

With that Peter Lukas literally disappeared out the door to Jon’s office, leaving it’s three occupants to stand in stunned silence.

“What the fuck was that?” Daisy asks after a moment.

“Not a legal marriage ceremony, for one thing,” Jon answers. He’s still very close to Martin and it’s starting to get overwhelming. Martin has gotten very used to being very far away from people and now he’s been in a small office with several for the past however many minutes.

“Yes, obviously,” Daisy sighs, “but he just left? Just like that? Because he enjoyed Martin’s company too much? No offense.”

“No one is more surprised than me,” Martin replies, “but it did get rid of him so that’s a plus.”

“Right, well, I’ll leave you two “newlyweds” alone. Basira’ll be back soon and she needs to hear about this.” Daisy leaves and shuts the door behind her.

“So I assume this isn’t the master plan you wanted me to trust you with on your own,” Jon says. Sitting down on his office couch and motioning Martin to follow him.

“Oh no, operation: make a weird old man like me enough that he never wants to see me again so he’ll fake marry me to my...to Jon was a roaring success,” he says in a mock-serious tone.

“I was right to trust you, then,” Jon replies in the same tone. He scoots a little closer to Martin and starts blushing furiously. “There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you since before the Unknowing but...It just never felt like the right time.”

Jon’s hand is so close to his he can feel it’s warmth, but he’s pretty sure that’s just the Lonely pulling away from a potential point of contact. He creeps his hand carefully nearer until their pinkies touch. Jon takes the hint and places his whole hand on top of Martin’s to interlace their fingers. Silence hangs over them for several moments before Jon speaks up again.

“Martin, I know I haven’t been...I know have been pretty terrible to you in the past. You didn’t deserve that behavior and I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again. If you can forgive me I...I just want you to know I love you.” At some point during his confession, he takes Martin’s hand in both of his and turns in his seat so their knees are touching and his eyes are looking longingly up at Martin.

“Ok,” Martin says dumbly. “Yeah...you...I...I love you, too. Do you want to...Can I kiss you? Properly?”

“Not a fan of stage kisses?” Jon laughs. “Yeah, a real kiss sounds nice.”

Martin reaches out and cups Jon’s face with his free hand to draw him closer while he leans down to kiss Jon as softly as possible. Jon kisses him back slowly like he’s trying to savor it for as long as possible. At some point, his hand is released so Jon can tangle his hands into Martin’s hair. He doesn’t pull; just threads his fingers through while he licks at Martin’s mouth. He’s tempted to tug Jon into his lap with his free hand to stop his neck from craning when Jon breaks away to breathe.

“Woah,” Martin breaths.

“You can’t blame me, we _are_ newlyweds,” Jon says sounding entirely too pleased with himself.

“We are not counting that as a wedding.”

“Ok, but I still think we should keep kissing, in case Peter realizes he gave you a six-figure check to pay for me kissing my thumbs.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact: According to a quick google search while writing, sea captains aren't qualified to marry people in the US or UK. Peter doesn't know that, though. Jon might.
> 
> I'm @leighistired on Tumblr. Come say hi!


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